Birmingham Bound series features Mignette Patrick Dorsey and Speak Truth to Power: The Story of Charles Patrick, a Civil Rights Pioneer

The Birmingham Public Library (BPL) Archives Department is kicking off a new series of lectures and book signings titled Birmingham Bound: Writers and Writing from the Birmingham Public Library Archives. The first presenter is Mignette Patrick Dorsey, author of Speak Truth to Power: The Story of Charles Patrick, a Civil Rights Pioneer at the Central Library on September 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the Arrington Auditorium. Ms. Dorsey will sign copies of her book, which will be available for purchase, and discuss her father’s brave stance against the Birmingham police department in the Jim Crow South. Free to the public.

In 1954, Charles Patrick, an African American Birmingham resident, took his step-son downtown to buy a Boy Scout uniform. Following a disagreement with a white woman over a parking space, Patrick was arrested and severely beaten in the Birmingham jail. Rather than accept the brutality, Charles Patrick risked his life by filing charges against the white police officers. Speak Truth to Power (University of Alabama Press, 2010) tells the story of his courageous stand and its surprising results. The daughter of Charles Patrick, Mignette Patrick Dorsey is a journalist and writer in Houston Texas.

The Birmingham Bound author series recognizes authors who researched their books in the Birmingham Public Library Archives. Historians, journalists, and other writers from throughout the United States and around the world have produced hundreds of books using the Archives’ collection of more than 30 million historic documents. These books include five recipients of the Pulitzer Prize.

Watch for future Birmingham Bound programs, including Tim Hollis signing Pizitz: The History of a Birmingham Institution on December 1, 2010.